Our research focuses on the establishment and maintenance of chronic infection by gamma-herpesviruses. All herpesviruses share the property of establishing life-long infection in their host. Notably, the gamma-herpesviruses are all associated with the development of lymphomas and other cancers, particularly in immune suppressed patients. As such, it is important to understand the basic strategies employed by this group of viruses to persist in the infected host. We now understand that these viruses encode multiple, distinct genetic programs that facilitate chronic infection. We have primarily focused on defining these genetic programs and understanding how they are regulated.

One of the long-term goals of our research is to identify aspects of gamma-herpesvirus infection that could be targets for anti-viral therapy. In addition, we are interested in aspects of gamma-herpesvirus infection that can be exploited to understand basic cellular processes. We have recently been focusing on modeling aspects of human gamma-herpesvirus infection using murine gammaherpesvirus 68 infection of mice.

One of the interesting areas of research that we are pursuing is how the murine gamma-herpesvirus molds the host immune response to virus infection. These studies have led to the identification of several viral proteins that manipulate the host immune response, including a secreted superantigen-like protein that has a dramatic impact on the function of a subset of CD8+ T cells, a viral protein that binds a number of different chemokines, and a third viral protein that modulates cytokine production by latently infected B cells as well as having the capacity to drive latently infected B cells to become antibody producing plasma cells. Ultimately, these studies may lead to new insights into common strategies employed by this family of herpesviruses to manipulate the host immune response thereby facilitating establishment and maintenance of a chronic infection.

The outstanding research faculty and commitment to basic science research at Emory University and the support of the Georgia Research Alliance.